Who the half-men? Posted on 8/22/2006
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

IRAN and Syria claim that Hezbollah has won the war and disarming the movement
is out of question and not an issue which can be negotiated. Tehran and Damascus
are acting as if Hezbollah’s victory and its men, who put up a courageous fight,
are theirs. The truth is neither Israel nor Hezbollah has won anything. The real
victory is for death and destruction. Lebanon has been forced to suffer huge
losses because of Hezbollah, which became egoistic and arrogant due to its
perceived control over the legitimate authority of Lebanon. This made Hezbollah
believe it had the right to take any decision on behalf of the Lebanese on
sensitive issues related to war and peace.

Some Lebanese are temporarily suppressing their agony and anger to compromise
with Hezbollah, which is distributing a paltry sum as compensation for their
painful losses. Surprisingly Hezbollah is distributing this compensation, which
it received from Iran, in dollars, the currency of the “Great Satan,” the United
States. The least Hezbollah could have done is to give the compensation in
Lebanese currency, which would have boosted the morale of the victims. This also
would have stabilized and increased the demand for the Lebanese currency besides
making it easy for banks to track the source and transactions of these amounts.

Until now no one has cared to explain why Iran chose to use dollar, the currency
of its greatest enemy.
Meanwhile, the scene in Syria is no less chaotic and confusing. The Syrian
regime, which has been isolated by the Arab world and the international
community, has lost its integrity and is being avoided by Arabs as an
incompatible organ, which cannot match their unified stand.

Arabs are unable to hide their disappointment with the silly behavior and
insults they have been hearing from the Syrian regime for a long time. The
Foreign Minister of Syria Waleed Al-Moalem has tried to put a spin on Syrian
President Dr Bashar Al-Assad’s recent reference to “half men” saying “Al-Assad
didn’t mean any offense to any Arab leader when he said they are half men. Maybe
he meant persons inside or outside Syria.”

For the Syrian regime, which has adopted killing as its major policy, lying is
the core of diplomacy. This was clear when Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos said “Syria has promised to use its power to disarm Hezbollah” only to
be rebuffed by the Syrian regime which wasted no time in saying “we didn’t make
any such promise to anybody.”

Both Damascus and Tehran are sinking deeper into isolation as they imagine
Hezbollah has achieved victory. Both the regimes think Lebanon hasn’t been
destroyed or lost any of its innocent people. It appears the war was ended only
after the whole world realized the real targets were Tehran and Damascus, and
not Hezbollah. This became evident only when the international community paid
close attention to the happenings in Lebanon.